


The Mechanics of Deeper Feelings

by GhostGreenSigns



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Compliant, Car Porn, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 06:23:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3436805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostGreenSigns/pseuds/GhostGreenSigns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dean teaches Cas about cars, they both learn that they want the same thing.</p><p> </p><p>*comments make my world go 'round*</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mechanics of Deeper Feelings

In the middle of summer, even monsters get lazy in the heat. There hasn’t been a case in weeks and everyone in the bunker is starting to get stir crazy. Sam has started a new project, an easy to use guidebook for hunters, based around his father’s journal and the books left behind by the Men of Letters. Cas has been helping him, staying inside the air conditioned bunker. It’s funny, he thinks, that Dean seems to lump him and his brother together under a bookworm archetype, when Cas’s past has been anything but down time and academics. 

“Excuse me.” Cas says to Sam, who is lost in the world of a dust covered book, before getting up from the table and making his way towards the heat. He stands at the door to the bunker and takes off his coat. It’s too hot for it outside. He removes his tie and hangs it. He feels under dressed and uncomfortable. 

He squints into the sun and the heat hits him immediately. He can hear the clanking noise of metal on metal before his vision adjusts enough for him to see Dean working on his car.  
Cas knows there is hardly ever anything wrong with the Impala when Dean works on it. He does it in the same way he cleans his guns, which he has done three times this week alone. He turns the parts and cleans them off and refills the fluids. He makes the car purr to life under his hands and Cas thinks that there is magic there since none of it makes very much sense to him. 

“Don’t you own a t-shirt?” Dean yells over to him. 

“You know I don’t.”

“You’re going to stroke out if you stay out here like that. Go get one of mine.”

“I can’t ‘stroke out’” Cas replies, though the idea of wearing one of Dean’s shirts makes his stomach flip over. He thinks about how it would smell like Dean. Like leather and heat and whiskey. He walks over to where his friend is and looks inside the Impala. Dean has the car parked in a patch of shade but the heat is unbearable. Cas rolls up his sleeves. After the first one is finished he notices Dean watching him out of the corner of his eye. Cas pops the button on the cuff of the second sleeve and rolls it up slower than the first. Dean licks him lips subtly and returns to doing…something, to the car. 

“I take it you needed a break from studying?”

“I’m not used to so much time for reflection.” Cas tells him. “I need to accomplish something.”

“How’s your car holding up?”

“It’s fine. The lights that appeared are gone since the last time you looked at it.”

Dean nods, wiping his brow with a forearm. “You should probably know how to fix it, just in case it breaks down on you. I doubt you have Angel AAA.”

Cas doesn’t know what that means but he agrees that learning to fix his car would be a good idea. “I have time now to learn.” 

“I was just about to check the oil, which is what was wrong with yours.” Dean wipes grease off his hands with a rag tucked into his back pocket. “Your shirt is going to get dirty.”

“I can wash my clothes.”

Dean shrugs and points to a small cap next to the engine. “Unscrew that and pull the little plastic piece out.”

He moves over to let Cas stand at the front of the car. He leans forward, the black metal scorching his skin. He unscrews the cap and pulls a long stick out from the depths of the car. Dean takes it from him, accidently brushing his fingers against Cas’s. 

“You wipe it off.” He demonstrates, pulling the rag from his pocket again and running the stick through it. “And put it back in.”

“That’s all?”

“Just the beginning.”

“What do I do next.”

“Cas, one step at a time.”

Cas rolls his eyes and sticks the piece back into the Impala. 

“Take it back out.”

The oil has coated part of the stick and he hands it to Dean for inspection. 

“I just refilled her a few weeks ago so the oil’s pretty high still.” He points to a divot in the stick and the oil that reaches almost to it. “This is where you want it to be, any lower and you should put more oil in. Maybe we should teach you on your own car. I’ve done a lot of work to mine lately.”

“No.” He has no validation for this other than the fact that he likes the idea of learning on the Impala. It’s an extension of Dean. He treats it like a piece of his soul. Cas likes the way he touches the car, with a sort of soft determination, careful but forceful. It makes Cas think about how Dean would touch him. If he ever did. 

“Right, well let’s change the filter then.” He stands next to Cas and screws the cap back on. Dean claps him on the shoulder and starts to laugh. 

“Man I’m sorry, forgot to wipe my hands off.“ 

Cas looks down to see a black hand print on his white shirt. 

“I told you to change.”

He looks at the mark, Dean’s handprint on his shoulder. He grins.

“I guess it’s only fair.” He replies. Dean shakes his head and lets his laugh trail off. 

Dean motions for Cas to follow him to the side of the car. “We have to drain the oil in order to change the filter. Get on your back and under the car.”

Cas stares at him for a minute before he follows the instruction. Dean slides in next to him, much more gracefully than Cas had managed. 

“Now, take this.” He hands Cas a wrench. “And undo that big bolt right there.” 

Cas is glad that this is a pretty easy to manage task as he doubts he could focus very well if he needed to. It’s a few degrees cooler under the car but with Dean so close, Cas’s skin is burning. He can feel Dean’s legs touching his own. 

The bolt falls off and oil starts to leak out of the car. Dean hands Cas an aluminum pan to place under the flow. 

“Ok, do you see that cylinder?” Dean asks him, rotating slightly closer to Cas and pointing his arm over Cas’s body. 

“Yes.”

“Use this and take it out.” He hands Cas another tool, brushing his fingers once again and instead of flinching away, he holds Cas there for a minute. “The oil that comes out of it is going to be hot so be careful.” He tells him in a raspier voice than usual. Cas swallows hard and nods. 

He replaces the filter with a clean one and replaces the bolt on the oil pan. It’s nice to be doing something with his hands, to be working on something physical instead of reading and gathering information. Dean would understand him. Though Sam’s work is important, both Dean and Cas need to see results to believe they are accomplishing something. 

Dean reaches out a hand to help Cas up and they walk back to the front of the Impala. “Just gotta refill the oil and then you’re done. You know how to change the oil and oil filter.”

“Thank you.”

“Now you won’t need me to do it for you.” He says with a grin. Cas’s heart sinks a little. Maybe that’s why Dean was so willing to teach him, so that it was one less thing he had to do for Cas. 

Cas reaches up without thinking and wipes a smudge off Dean’s freckled cheek. Dean opens his mouth like he has something to say but thinks better of it. Instead, he grabs Cas’s wrist. Everything is too still. Everything is hanging in place and Cas isn’t sure how things will land once time starts up again. 

Dean rubs his thumb into Cas’s palm. He can feel callouses from years of working with his hands on cars and weapons. He steps closer, closing the space between them and pressing his lips to Cas’s. 

And everything starts back up again. The heat rushes through Cas in waves as Dean brings his other hand around to the back of Cas’s neck. Cas grips onto Dean’s hand and lets himself feel all of Dean. His calloused hands, his slightly dry lips, the warmth of his skin, the way his tongue gently flicks against Cas’s lips like a question. 

Dean steps to the side, pressing Cas against the car and pinning him there with his body. His hands are in Cas’s hair, tugging gently, trying to get as close to the Angel as possible. Cas lays one hand where his handprint was burned into Dean’s skin, the other is on his neck. Dean’s hands move to Cas’s hips, gripping them tightly. A low growl escapes Cas’s lips and he feels Dean smile against his mouth. 

As Dean breaks away, he touches his forehead to Cas’s. They don’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. Everything will continue as normal. The hunting, life in the bunker, except now there will be kisses and touches. They walk back to the bunker together, Dean grinning like a maniac and shaking his head the whole way. 

Cas knows why he loves to watch Dean work on the Impala so much. Once, he had thought that maybe it was a metaphor. Dean needed to be in control of something. Or Dean tried to fix his conscience while he fixed the Impala. He thought that maybe it was to make his father proud. He thought it was because it was his home. But now he knows. It’s because Dean touches it the same way he touches everything he loves and Cas always hoped that one day, Dean would touch him like that.


End file.
